


A Day at the Beach!

by feitan



Category: Arslan Senki | Heroic Legend of Arslan
Genre: Beaches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 15:04:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4881391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feitan/pseuds/feitan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arslan and co. spend a day at the beach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day at the Beach!

It was a near-perfect evening to be at the beach. The setting sun’s dazzling reflection over the water proved to be a fascinating sight to the party that stood before it. Not one of them could remember ever having seen something so captivating before. The majority of the day’s beach-goers had come and gone, leaving the group to trek the beach themselves for the rest of the day. The remainder of the visitors consisted of a mother and her small child, building a sandcastle a short ways away from the others. These aforementioned others were none other than the Crown Prince of Pars himself, Arslan, along with his dutiful comrades, Daryun, Narsus, Farangis, Gieve, Alfreed and Elam. They were all ecstatic to finally be able to see the ocean with their own eyes. 

Except for Daryun. Daryun was incredibly on-edge because of all the potential threats the expansive body of water before them could pose to the prince. He wasn’t even sure if Arslan could swim! A frightening image flashed through his mind of the boy struggling to stay afloat in the water, no one coming to his aid. A single tear was shed by Daryun and he quickly wiped it away before anyone could see. However, when he reopened his eyes, he was taken aback at the sight in front of him. It was exactly what he’d been imagining in his head! ...Or was it in his head?

Either way, Arslan was drowning and Daryun was still just standing there, mouth agape, sweating, and too shocked to even move. It wasn't until Narsus shoved him aside that he was able to move again, but by the time he’d sprinted to the water, nearly tripping several times in the process, Narsus had already brought Arslan safely back to the shore.

He froze in place again, unable to comprehend the events that had transpired mere seconds ago. The prince’s life was in grave danger and he had done nothing about it! Surely something must have been wrong with him! Perhaps he was sick! That must be it! 

This was hardly better than any of the other explanations, though. What would the prince do if Daryun was to fall ill? Who would protect him?! Or worse, what if Daryun were to perish from some sort of violent illness? Perhaps it was better for him to do so, rather than possibly spreading the disease to anyone else, but he would still be leaving Arslan in the hands of those incapable fools!

“Daryun,” warned a familiar voice, drawing him out of his thoughts. “You’re hyperventilating again.”

He turned to see the Lady Farangis, arms crossed, and usual scowl plastered on her face.

“I-I’m fine!” he said, chuckling anxiously. “Just a bit shaken up is all!”

The woman didn’t seem to buy it, however. She responded only by moving herself closer to Daryun, and looking him in the face intensely. Daryun panicked and backed away, raising his hands in defense. 

“I promise! There’s no need for this absurdity!” he said, frantically trying to put distance between himself and the lady.

“You don’t look too good, Daryun,” she responded, finally receding some and turning away again.

Unfortunately for Daryun, Gieve had chosen this day as the opportune time to try to win Farangis over, once again. His strategy this time was for sure going to do the trick! However, he’d been pulled out of his thoughts by the sight of Daryun shamelessly flirting with Farangis! He wouldn’t stand for this, so he decided to make his ploy early.

He launched himself between the two, accidentally punching Daryun in the face as the result of a mediocre attempt at The Whip. 

“Augh!” cried Daryun, stumbling backwards.

Gieve was impressed with himself, and began to sparkle. Even though that hadn’t exactly been what he was going for, it was still extraordinary by his standards. 

“Ah, forgive me, Daryun,” Gieve said, offering a hand to his fallen comrade. “I mistook you for an assailant trying to harm Lady Farangis here. It was an honest mistake.”

Daryun frowned, knocking Gieve’s hand out of the way and standing up on his own. He’d had enough embarrassment for the day, and decided to do something that couldn’t possibly draw much more attention to himself. He silently wandered a few feet away, and sat down on the sand, alone.

From where he sat under the shade of an umbrella, Elam witnessed all of this take place. He sighed heavily, and stood up, and began trudging through the sand, towards Daryun. Upon arrival, he grabbed Daryun’s face, forcing it towards him. 

“Your nose is broken,” he said, letting go and sitting down in the large shadow that the other was casting.

“Oh,” Daryun replied.

Nearer to the shore, Narsus was keeping a close eye on Arslan, making sure he didn’t carelessly wander back into the water again. He knew Daryun’s poor heart couldn’t handle that again. Instead, the prince had occupied himself by helping Alfreed build a sandcastle. 

Narsus leaned back in his fold-out beach chair and took a sip from the glass of sink water resting in his left hand. He was wordlessly critiquing the sloppy architecture of the sand structure before him. It was absolutely dreadful. Then he noticed Alfreed flailing her arms at him.

“Hey!” she shouted, disregarding the fact that they were less than five feet away from each other. “Why don’t you come help us?”

“Yeah, Narsus!” Arslan agreed. “That sink water can’t be too good, anyways. It’s like, what, three weeks old?” he asked.

Narsus couldn’t deny this. Before they had left his home for the last time, he had made sure Elam had filled up one last glass of savory sink water. After all, neither of them knew when they were going to come across another sink again. This one glass, Narsus had made Elam carry with him for the past few weeks. It was indeed warm and overall abominable. He nodded and stood, dumping the glass out onto the sand. Elam saw this and started crying.

“Alright, I will help you,” announced Narsus. The two children beamed at him jubilantly, whilst Daryun tried awkwardly to calm the bawling Elam.

Meanwhile, Lady Farangis was bored, once again. She had tried for an hour or so to play volleyball with Gieve, but he kept missing the ball and making pathetic excuses. Mostly, though, she wondered what she’d done to deserve having to spend the entire day with him. Eventually, she’d turned without any warning, and walked away from the other. She looked between the two other groups, deciding where to go. Perhaps she could assist Daryun with calming the boy that was sobbing into his cape, but she didn’t really feel like it at the moment. After a minute of standing in the same spot, unmoving, she decided to go see if the others needed some help with the construction of their sand castle.

However, upon seeing the catastrophe that was the castle, she nearly changed her mind and walked away. Narsus was frantically dodging the handfuls of sand thrown at him by Alfreed while Arslan sat a few feet away from the commotion, drawing something in the sand. Farangis made her way towards him, ducking to avoid some sand haphazardly thrown her way. 

She observed the design the prince was drawing, but for the life of her couldn't figure out what the squiggles were supposed to represent.

"So…" she began, kneeling down to get a closer look. "What would that be?"

"It's a garden!" Arslan answered brightly, looking up at the lady expectantly. "Do you like it?"

She reexamined the "garden", trying to recognize any plants or flowers, but it still just looked like a bunch of ugly squiggles. "It's magnificent, your highness."

"Really?" asked Arslan, whose smile grew even bigger. He pointed to one of the twisty lines in the garden. "That one is my favorite!"

Farangis narrowed her eyes, sitting down across from the prince. "A wise choice, but I believe this one is far superior." She extended a finger towards a different squiggle.

Arslan's smile dropped and he looked back up at Farangis hesitantly. "Oh… Are you sure? I was positive that this one was the most admirable."

Farangis nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid that one just doesn't make the cut, your highness. This one puts it to shame. It is truly dazzling."

Arslan observed the other squiggle with a scrutinizing stare. However, he soon found himself beginning to doubt his choice in squiggles. "I… suppose you're right," he said, gravely. 

With a triumphant cross of her arms, Farangis nodded. "I'm glad you see it my way, your highness."

Just as Arslan was about to reach out and draw some more squiggles, a boot landed right in the center of his beloved garden. 

"Ahh…" he said, nervously looking up at the owner of the boot. It was Narsus, and he was already several more steps away from them. In pursuit behind him was Alfreed, still chucking handful after handful of sand at the poor man.

Still huddled together on the sand sat the weeping Elam and the very distraught Daryun. 

"I just…" Elam began, drawing in a shaky breath. "I just wish Lord Narsus would appreciate everything I do for him!" He looked wide-eyed at Daryun as if he expected some kind of consolation from him. For lack of anything better to do, Daryun nodded. He knew that Narsus could be a rather cantankerous man at times. 

Elam blew his nose into Daryun's cape once more. "You see what I mean, though, right, Daryun? It's not just me?!" He made made a wild gesture towards Narsus, who was still sprinting away down the beach. "He's ungrateful and unsympathetic! Just look at him! Running away from his problems again…!"

Elam made a move to stand, but Daryun laid a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you should sit down," he cautioned.

"I've been sitting down for, like, ten minutes, Daryun!" Elam shouted, moving Daryun's hand out of the way and standing up. "I'm going to give Lord Narsus a piece of my mind."

Daryun let out a heavy sigh, watching Elam run off after Narsus. If he really wanted to, he thought, he could stop Elam. But he didn't feel like it, and he kind of wanted to see Narsus get yelled at. Daryun, once again by himself, had only just begun to appreciate the silence when Gieve wandered over and took a seat next to him. 

"What's gotten you so woebegone?" he asked, crossing his arms. "I'm sure His Highness wouldn't refuse more help with his sandcastle."

Daryun turned and fixed Gieve with a menacing glare. He wasn't going to put up with this fool's shenanigans today.

"And I'm sure that I, Daryun, would greatly appreciate it if you stopped talking entirely."

Gieve scoffed, moving his gaze back towards the others. It was only then that something caught his eye. Not taking his eyes off the scene, he nudged Daryun with his elbow and nodded towards the incredible sight. Daryun's eyes widened when he noticed Narsus on the ground, struggling to block the punches from both Alfreed and Elam. Daryun nearly tripped in the sand again, sprinting to save his friend from the vicious children. 

When he finally reached them, he picked each of the children up in one hand and tossed them away from the now beaten and bloody Narsus.

"Narsus!" he yelled, helping his friend up. "What happened!"

Narsus coughed weakly, leaning on Daryun for support. "We must never come to the beach again."

As Daryun helped Narsus back to the station wagon, Alfreed looked towards Elam curiously. 

"Hey," she said abruptly. "Why were you trying to beat up Lord Narsus?"

"I've just… had a really long day," Elam said, staring intently at the sand. "I should probably go apologize. What about you?"

Alfreed laughed, waving a carefree hand. "Like I need a reason to beat him up! Have you seen him?"

Elam couldn't argue there. Lord Narsus did look like the kind of guy you'd want to punch in the face for no reason in particular.


End file.
